“Let go of me!” Tony came over and stood beside her. “How’d you do that? It’s not coded to your DNA.”
She blinked tears away, desperate in a way that made her want to run and not stop running. “I have no idea what’s happening!”
Something hard touched the back of her head. “I’m growing impatient.”
Miles.
Tony looked back, flinched, then told her, “Put your finger in here.” He slid up a flap under the keypad and grabbed her hand. Stuck her index finger in.
She felt the prick of a needle and pulled her hand back to suck at the bead of blood on the pad of her finger. “Ow. Why are we letting them in? They can’t have access to the vault!”
“We aren’t more honorable if we’re dead,” Tony replied.
“You think giving your life for something isn’t honorable?”
“I think I’m not discussing it right now!”
The door whirred.“Enter passcode.”
Tony hammered a series of numbers, the sequence going long enough that she felt her eyebrows rise. Finally, he hit Enter.
“We can’t give them access to the vault.” She bit her lip.
“We don’t have a choice,” Tony said. “They’ll kill both of us.”
Miles grabbed her shoulder, the gun still pressed against the back of her head. “At least someone here understands how this is gonna go.”
”Entry authorized.”
The door mechanism whirred. Behind the metal surface of the door, Eliana heard a series of cogs click around, finally settling into place with a louder click. Tony grabbed the wheel of the vault door and spun it, then pulled it open, which meant they all had to step back.
Stale air drifted out from inside the vault, a larger room than this entryway. Down both sides of the room, crates were stacked on top of each other. At the back wall, between the stored items, was a stack of what looked like lockers, most measuring a couple of feet squared. A few in the middle were only inches high, but the same width. Maybe this place really had been a bank at one point. Or a library with secure places to keep valuable items.
Miles shoved her into the vault.
“No!” Tony yelled.
She stumbled and turned to them. Saw the horror on Tony’s face. What was that about?
“You shouldn’t be alive.” Tony looked astounded.
Two of the guys behind Miles shoved him in.
Tony yelped and nearly fell. She grabbed him, making sure he didn’t go down. At the doorway, Miles and all his friends watched them.
“What’s going on?” Eliana was missing something.
Tony whispered, “The vault kills anyone except the person whose DNA is coded to the entry.”
But it had scanned her retina and taken her blood. Even though she’d never coded her DNA to this thing. It made no sense.
Miles said, “I guess we can assume that’s one rumor that isn’t true.” He grabbed the jacket sleeve of one of his crew members and shoved him into the vault.
The young man stumbled forward.
Something in the ceiling hummed, and the guy froze.
His jacket started smoking.
